Gran Canaria has the Sahara to thank for its magnificent, rolling dunes and soft bays. Over centuries, the African desert's soft sands have drifted the short distance across the sea to cloak this island's coastline in its distinctive gold frill. At Maspalomas, the beach rises up in a succession of dramatic, ever-shifting dunes creating a landscape straight out of Laurence of Arabia. Flights to Gran Canaria offer a bird's eye view of this island's wide, sandy bays but, from this distance, the overall impression is of a lush island with deep green valleys, snowy mountains and mile after mile of untouched wilderness.